Responding to the penultimate budget before the election, one phrase that you can not apply to Ed Miliband today was “Prime Minister in waiting”. He was all over the shop, tearing through his list of tired slogans before limping back to his class war comfort zone. It wasn’t as bad as Ed Balls’ terrible Autumn Statement meltdown, but it was not far off.

Of course responding to a Budget you have not seen is tricky – especially one with lots of unknown detail – but Miliband could have at least mentioned it once or twice rather than just yelling. One very loyal government member chortles “Miliband was just a complete car crash… Every Labour MP must be asking the question why they have him as leader”. And it’s not just Tories who think this…

Instead of spending money they do not have on expensive focus groups and polling, the Labour Party should just watch Channel Four’s GoggleBox. The show has people from all walks of society watching TV at home and it captures their reactions. Miliband and his pie-in-the-sky Jobs Guarantee Scheme popped up on the news, and the response will not make for comfortable viewing if you’re a Labour strategist or supporter.

Some of the family friendly comments include:

“F**king hilarious!”

“Ridiculous!”

“He is a bit of a joke isn’t he?”

“I don’t even understand politics, but I understand that is s**t idea.”